In the latter years of the 20th century, the Humayun’s Tomb site had suffered from a condition that had befallen many World Heritage Sites. Its gardens were worn, its masonry cracked, and the stonework broken or incomplete, the ruinous appearance resulting in few visitors to the site. The competition for resources made restoration of cultural sites an unpalatable position for many authorities. Unfortunate use of cement mortars during earlier repairs accelerated the decay process.

All the monuments in Humayun’s Tomb Complex including the Barber’s tomb, west and south gateways, North, east and north east pavilions, enclosure walls have been scanned using 3D Leica scanner. Detailed architectural working drawings including plans, elevations, sections etc are prepared for each monument. The exhaustive archival and historical research programme coupled with a condition assessment of the structure has recorded individual stones, to enhance our understanding of the site and thereby establish the significance.

Humayun’s Tomb and the other contemporary 16th century garden tombs within the property form a unique ensemble of Mughal era garden-tombs. Humayun’s Garden-tomb is built on a monumental scale, grandeur of design and garden setting with no precedence in the Islamic world for a mausoleum. Conservation works therefore aimed to ensure that the significance is retained or even enhanced by restoring authenticity of material and integrity of the site.

Key conservation charters and guidelines such as the ASI’s Conservation Manual, Venice Charter, UNESCO’s Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter, the Nara Charter among others informed the conservation decisions at Humayun’s Tomb. The procedure included exhaustive documentation and research to establish the RSOUV for the World Heritage Site, with the focus on long-term preservation by ensuring stability, integrity and authenticity.

Since conservation of Humayun’s Tomb has the potential to impact its significance, decision-making needs to based on wide consultation. The ASI Core Committee held 43 reviews in which 41 individual ASI officers inspected the ongoing works and provided instructions to the team. Similarly, several formal reviews were conducted by noted international and national experts including Mr. Francesco Bandarin, Mr. Herb Stovel, Mr. A.G.K. Menon, Dr Ebba Koch, Dr Neils Gutchsow, and Prof. Vasavada.

In view of the scale of work to be carried out and with a major departure from a ‘preserve as found’ approach, a Conservation Plan detailing the all proposed works was prepared by the team in 2008. The conservation approach was informed by national and international conservation philosophies, ensuring that all conservation efforts would guarantee long-term preservation while respecting the intention of the Mughal builders. The plan was shared with ASI, UNESCO and conservation professionals.

For the Humayun’s Tomb, the conservation plan outlined the intention to depend on master craftsmen not only to implement the conservation works but also be part of the decision-making systems. The craft-based approach to conservation was advocated after the condition assessment led to the realization that in order to ensure long-term preservation, the 20th-century alterations would have to be carefully removed and replaced with the traditional materials by master craftsmen using traditional tools.

The conservation of Humayun’s Tomb has been carried out in a unique set of circumstances wherein the role of traditional building craftsmanship is paramount as is the role of a multi-disciplinary team in the research, documentation, establishing the conservation policy, planning, supervision, dissemination of proposed works and learning. The works were supervised on a full-time basis by trained and experienced conservation architects, engineers and archaeologists from both ASI and AKTC.